334 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
on land was scanty; some few reindeer were seen, a mountain 
fox was killed, and a lemming caught. 
Only the following birds were seen : owls (Strix nyctea) rather 
numerous, of which one was killed ; a species of falcon, which 
was hunted unsuccessfully; snow buntings, breeding very gene¬ 
rally in the stone mounds ; a covey of snow ptarmigan, of which 
some young birds were shot ; six species of waders, the most 
common birds of the region, of which a large number were 
shot; two kinds of gulls {Lams glaucus and tridactylus ); Lestris 
parasitica and Buffonii, the latter the more common of the two ; 
Anser lernicla, very common ; and finally the long-tailed duck 
{Harelda glacialis) in great flocks swimming in the Sound. 
Bird life, viewed as a whole, was still scanty here, in comparison 
with that which we were accustomed to see in the northern 
regions west of Novaya Zemlya. 
In the sea the higher animal life was somewhat more abun¬ 
dant. A walrus had been seen during the passage from the 
Yenisej, and on the ice drifting about in the Sound a number of 
seals, both PJwca larhata and Phoca Mspida, were observed. 
This gave rise to the supposition that at the sea-bottom animal 
life was richer, which was also confirmed by the dredging yield. 
Nowhere was seen on our arrival any trace of man, but a cairn 
now indicates the place, off which the Vega and the Ijcna were 
anchored. 
In this sea never before visited by any vessel, however, we 
were nearly coming in contact with a countryman. For while 
we lay at anchor in Taimur Sound, Captain Edward Johannesen 
came into the neighbourhood of the same place with his sailing 
vessel Norddand from Tromsoe. He had left Norway on the 22nd 
May 1878, had come to Gooseland in Novaya Zemlya on the 6th 
June, and had reached the northernmost point of that island 
on the 22nd July. Here loud thunder was heard on the 26th 
July. On the 10th August he steered eastwards from Novaya 
Zemlya across the Kara Sea between 76° and 77° N.L. in open 
